PROSIDING TPT XXI PERHAPI 2012

Application Uniformity Index in Draw Control Practices to Reduce

Damage at the Production Level of Block Cave Mine PT Freeport
Indonesia
E. WIDIJANTO1, S. NUGRAHA2, and A. SJADAT3
1

Civil Geotech & Regional Hydrology-PTFI

2,3
Underground Geotech-PTFI

ABSTRACT
PT Freeport Indonesia operates a copper-gold mine located in the province of Papua,
Indonesia about 3,500 km east of Jakarta. Current ore production from the project is about
200,000 tonnes per day (tpd) of which about 2.5 ktpd from Big Gossans stope mine, 50 ktpd
come from the DOZ Block Cave and the rest is mined from the Grasberg Open Pit. Currently
two new underground mines under development are the Grasberg Block Cave and Deep Mill
Level Zone to ultimately replace surface mine operation with underground.
The stability of the production level in block or panel caving drives production performance
of the mine. It is critical to ensure stability of the panels and reduce the damage to support
efficient and productive mine. Damage of the panels which lead to the heavy damage or panel
closure contribute to the lower productivity, additional repair and re-support program, also
instability at the adjacent area for the future. Draw or mucking performance is one of critical
factor which contribute to the stability of production level in a block or panel cave.
Significant correlation between draw behavior and displacement rate at DOZ (Deep Ore
Zone) mine, and showed relationship as the draw rate increases, the displacement decreases
and vice versa also empirical draw rate recommendations have been determined. The best
practical application is to have uniform and continuous mucking surrounding draw points. To
quantify and elaborate relationship between draw behavior with displacement, uniformity
index which have been applied for draw control practices at South America Mines are utilized
to do further analysis.
This paper outlines some works to determine relation of draw performance and damage of the
production level which represented by displacement, consequences of non-uniform and
discontinuous drawing at block or panel cave mines, and the effort of the team to implement
practical application to reduce the hazard of instability at production level also to achieve its
desired production target.
Keywords: stope mine, block cave, panel cave, stability, damage, draw performance, draw
behavior, uniform mucking, continuous mucking, displacement, uniformity index
INTRODUCTION
PT Freeport Indonesia operates a copper and gold mining complex in the Erstberg Mining
District of the Sudirman Mountains in the province of Papua, Indonesia at elevations from
3000 to 4500 metres above sea level (Figure 1). The topography is extremely rugged and
rainfall in the mine area averages 5500 mm per year.
Current operations in the district include the Grasberg open pit (150,000 tpd ore), the DOZ
panel cave mine (50,000 tpd ore), and Big Gossan stope mine (2,500 tpd ore). The DOZ
block cave is the third panel cave in the Erstberg East Skarn System (EESS) after the Gunung
Bijih Timur (GBT) Mine and the Intermediate Ore Zone (IOZ) Mine (Figure 2). The GBT

287

block cave was in operation from 1980 to 1993 and produced about 60 million tonnes of ore.
The IOZ block cave was started in 1994 and produced over 50 million tons of ore till 2003.
The DOZ block cave started production in 2000 and by the end of 2011 will produce more
than 160 million tonnes. The future DMLZ mine (Deep Mill Level Zone) underneath current
DOZ mine will be on production in 2015.

Figure 1 Location of PTFIs mining operations

The stability of the production level in block or panel caving drives production performance
of the mine. It is critical to ensure stability of the panels and reduce the damage to support
efficient and productive mine. Damage of the panel which leads to the heavy damage or panel
closure contributes to the lower productivity, additional repair and re-support program, also
instability at the adjacent area for the future.

Figure 2 - Ertsberg East Skarn System (EESS) complex

288

The damage of the panel normally due to poor ground, geological features, abutment stress
from the undercut, strain burst, and non-uniform and discontinuous mucking or drawing.
Uniform and continuous mucking or drawing in the block caving is essential to reduce high
deformation or displacement, also damage reduction in the extraction level. The challenge is
how to maintain uniform and continuous mucking for long period with available resources
and some production constraints (i.e. limited equipment, panel damage, wet muck, etc.).
GEOLOGY & GEOTECHNICAL CONDITION
The key lithologies consist of skarn assemblages locally intruded by variably altered Erstberg
Diorite; the later forms the footwall while forsterite skarn, magnetite-forsterite skarn,
magnetite and DOZ Breccia (locally known as HALO High Altered Locally Ore) and marble
are in the hanging wall (Coutts et al., 1999).

Figure 3 - Geology Complex in DOZ Mine

Much of the bedding has been preserved in the skarn deposits and within the hanging wall
marble. There has been movement observed along these bedding planes as small scale faults
which indicate normal left lateral movement, which are cut by NE-SW and NW-SE-trending
faults. Although diorite has healed most structures, there are prominent joint sets cutting the
diorite and skarn, with as many as four sets observed.
Ground conditions within the EESS system are highly variable. Within zones of good to very
good ground conditions there are elongated zones of very poor ground conditions
characterized by low strength, low core recovery and low RQD values. The values of the
Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS), Rock Quality Designation (RQD), Rock Mass Rating
(RMR) classification, together with percentage from each rock type are summarized in Table
1.

289

Table 1 . Geotechnical classification and its distribution in the DOZ (Widijanto et al., 2006)
Rock Type

UCS (MPa)

RQD (%)

RMR Class

Percentage (%)

DOZ Breccia

22.3

40

Very poor

9.57

Marble-Sandstone

22.3

65

Poor

1.20

Forsterite Skarn

127.3

84

Good

20.58

Fors-Mag Skarn

56.88

67

Fair

16.26

Magnetite Skarn

97.5

71

Good

1.87

Diorite

111

80

Good

49.99

Other

0.52

DRAW CONTROL CONTRIBUTION IN PANEL STABILITY

Draw control is defined as the practice of controlling the tonnages drawn from individual
drawpoints with the object of minimizing overall dilution and maintaining the planned ore
grade sent to the plant, ensuring maximum ore recovery, avoiding damaging load
concentration on the extraction horizon, and avoiding the creation of conditions that could
lead to air blasts, mud rushes, etc. (Laubscher, 2000).
Refer to Laubscher (2000) that appropriate draw control can avoid damage due to load
concentration on the extraction horizon. Load concentration on the extraction horizon can be
observed through its displacement and damage progress. So it is critical to maintain draw
control in the extraction level to avoid high displacement or extensive damage progress.

Figure 4 Cracks at the rib as one of indicator of excessive load at the extraction level
In line with Laubscher, at DOZ Mine, the relation between damage as of displacement result
with mucking or drawing as follow:
Draw rate increases, the displacement decreases, and vice versa (Rachmad & Widijanto,
2002).

290

Mucking rate increases, the displacement decreases. At consistent mucking rate, a consistent
convergence is observed, and differential draw induces high convergence (Febrian, Yudanto,
& Rubio, 2004)
The empirical criteria established for the draw rate recommendation, for convergence rate <
0.8 mm/day no change in draw order, for convergence rate 0.8-2.0 mm/day increase
draw rate by 2-3 buckets/shift up to a maximum of 10 buckets/shift, and for convergence
rate > 2.0 mm/day increase draw rate by 4-6 buckets/shift up to a maximum of 17 buckets
per shift (Sahupala & Annavarapu, 2007).

Figure 5 Draw rate versus displacement and damage class

It is obvious that continuous mucking or drawing in the block caving is essential to reduce
high displacement, also to reduce damage in the extraction level (as shown in figure 5).
UNIFORMITY INDEX
The uniformity index is introduced and results of back analysis are presented to show relation
between draw and interaction, as well as a methodology to asses and evaluate interactive
layout designs (Susaeta, 2004).

Where:
UI : Uniformity Index
: Number of inactive draw points in the draw point vicinity
: Factor of normalization, equal to 99/89
tp : Tonnage extracted from draw point p (see figure 4) under analysis, in a specific period
of time
ti : Tonnage extracted from draw point i belonging to draw point p vicinity in the same period
of time

291

tmax : Maximum tonnage extracted in the vicinity of draw point p, in the same period of time
tmin : Minimum tonnage extracted in the vicinity of draw point p, in the same period of time
n : Number of draw points belonging to the vicinity of draw point p

Figure 4 Plan view draw point interaction

The first integer part (), that indicates the number of inactive draw points in the vicinity, in
other words draw points without movement during the considered period of time. Then as
grows draw is less uniform.

Figure 5 - Uniformity Index Example Matrix (Susaeta, 2004)

The second part of equation above will be called Specific Index of Uniformity, it is a decimal
number between 0 and 1, and indicates the uniformity of draw among the active draw points
for the selected period of time or in the other word 0 means completely uniform draw and 1
means completely isolated draw
DATA ANALYSIS
To test uniformity index (UI) as assessment tool to review drawing performance or behavior,
there are some steps of work as shown in figure below.

292

DATA COLLECTION
For
SIGNIFICANT
CONVERGENCE (SC)

DETERMINE
POTENTIAL CAUSE
OF SC

SELECT SC
RELATED
MUCKING

UI
CALCULATION

DATA ANALYSIS

RESULT

Figure 6 Flow of works

From 283 selected significant convergence events ( 1mm/day) at DOZ mine during 2010.
The contributor of these events associated with close draw point or no mucking activities
(41.3%), decreasing mucking (24.7%) and abutment stress (33.9%). This data shows that
mucking or drawing activities is the main contributor of significant convergence events in the
extraction level (66%).
There is a significant correlation between drawing and displacement rate, and showed
relationship as the draw increases, the displacement decreases and vice versa (Rachmad &
Widijanto, 2002).
Some test trials utilizing uniformity index (UI) show that as higher UI, the chance for having
significant displacement higher as well and vice versa. Higher UI means higher number of
inactive or close draw point and higher non-uniform production among surrounding draw
points. Test trial for different shift scenarios (1 to 9 shift calculations) show the same trend
that high displacement (significant convergence) occurred at higher uniformity index.

Figure 9 Most of significant convergence at its higher uniformity index

APPLICATION IN THE FIELD
It is obvious as a number of inactive draw point gets higher possibility for having significant
convergence event (significant displacement) is higher as well. For extreme comparison if 1
inactive draw point only, the possibility of having significant convergence is only 10% of data
population compare to the almost 100% significant convergence events from 9 inactive or
close draw points scenario.
That figure also provide practical guidance to allow maximum 3 inactive or close draw points
to avoid significant convergence event which cause damage in the extraction level. Three
inactive or close draw points give 30% in average of significant convergence events.

293

It is believed that as long the non-uniform and discontinuous mucking happen as the
significant convergence event increases. Figure 12 shows the percentage of cumulative
significant convergence occurs between 4-5 shifts period (at 3 inactive draw points scenario).
In other word, the condition without non-uniform and discontinuous mucking still can be
allowed for 5 shifts period.

Figure 70 Most of significant convergence at its higher uniformity index

Figure 8 The change trend happen at 4-5 shifts period for 3 inactive draw point scenario
CONCLUSION
Significant convergence displacement is associated with close draw points means no
mucking activities- (41%), abutment stress (34%), and decreasing mucking (25%). Mucking
or drawing activity is main contributor of significant convergence events in extraction level
(66%)

294

Uniformity index (UI) can be utilized to assess and evaluate how uniform drawing activities
in each draw point.
Number of inactive or close drawpoints correlates with significant convergence or
displacement. Statistically 3 (three) inactive drawpoints cover 26-32% of significant
convergence events for 1 up to 9 shifts scenarios. Three (3) draw points can be as a
maximum inactive draw points application to avoid potential significant convergence events
due to drawing activities.
From time perspective (for 3 inactive draw points scenario), the critical change of additional
significant convergence events happen from 4 to 5 shifts uniformity index calculation, in
other word 5 shifts can be utilized as maximum recommended time without any drawing or
mucking of draw point (for damage avoidance)
Uniform and continuous drawing is essential to reduce significant displacement (damage
reduction) however it is quite difficult to be executed in the field due some resources and
production constraints, so quantification of maximum number of inactive or close draw
points and critical time constraint will provide technical judgments for tactical production
strategy.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the management of PT. Freeport Indonesia for permission to
publish this paper. The contributions made by underground personnel, especially DOZ
geotechnical engineers to this paper are gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Coutts B.P. et al., Geology of the Deep Ore Zone, Erstberg East Skarn System, Irian Jaya,
AusIMM PACRIM Conference, Bali Indonesia (1999).
Laubscher, D, A Practical Manual on Block Caving, International Caving Study (1997-2000),
Brisbane Australia (2000).
Rachmad, L. and Widijanto, E. ,Application of Convergence Monitoring at PT. Freeport
Indonesia Deep Ore Zone Mine, 5th North American Rock Mechanics Symposium and 17th
Tunneling Association of Canada Conference, Sudbury Canada (2002).
Febrian I et al. , Application of convergence monitoring to manage induced stress by mining
activities at PT Freeport Indonesia Deep Ore Zone Mine, MassMin 2004, Santiago Chile
(2004)
Susaeta, A., Theory of gravity flow (part2), MassMin 2004, Santiago Chile (2004).
Widijanto E. et al., Geotechnical Challenges in the DOZ Block Cave Mine, Rock Mechanics
in Underground Construction ISRM International Symposium 2006, Singapore (2006).
Sahupala H. & Annavarapu S. Assessment of pillar damage at the extraction level in the deep
ore zone (DOZ) mine, PT Freeport Indonesia, 1st Int. Symposium on Block and Sub-Level
Caving, Cape Town South Africa (2007)
Widijanto E. & Nugraha S, Uniformity Index for Draw Control Practices DOZ Mine,
Internal Memorandum PT Freeport Indonesia (2012).
Widijanto E et al., Optimizing draw control practices to reduce damage at the production
level of block cave mine PT Freeport Indonesia, 10th International Symposium on Earth
Science and Technology 2012, Bandung Indonesia (September 2012).